AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you mean?” I felt so young compared to him. And in truth, I was so young. Fully a woman, yes, but a child in terms of the scope of years Smoky had already seen come and go.
“The reason I left the Northlands was to avoid coming to blows with him. I wanted to kill him when I was younger, I hated him so much, but dragons are raised to honor our ancestors. I thought if I left, things would get better. Maybe he’d change. Maybe he’d see the error of his ways. But Hyto got worse. He abused our servants, he threatened my mother time and again, and while she just ignored him, there was always the fear he’d act on his threats. And he loved to ravish and pillage the nearby human villages. He took pleasure in burning their houses to the ground and raping their women.”
I shivered. My instincts had been right on. And then I remembered when I’d first met Smoky. He had said, “I could steal you away and no one would stop me.” He did have some of his father’s blood in him, but he was doing his best to keep it under control.
“I thought he fought alongside the humans in the wars—you told me your grandfather did, and your father.”
“Hyto fought in the wars all right, but only to keep from being branded a coward. My grandfather’s the brave and honorable one. At the Council, after the ruling, he actually disowned Hyto and . . . he made me his heir. So my father is truly alone. He’s been turned out by all of his family. He can’t be seen in the Dragon Reaches—not for a thousand years, at least.” His voice cracked for just a moment. “It was bad, Camille. Very, very bad.”
Very softly, I asked, “What does your grandmother think about this? Hyto’s mother?”
He shook his head. “She died long ago. She was murdered by a redback.”
I froze. Should I tell him what his father had said to me? Would it just complicate matters even more? But really, they couldn’t get much worse. I let out a long sigh and told him everything.
Smoky’s eyes shifted from glacial gray to white ice as I spelled out Hyto’s implied threat. He took hold of my wrist.
“Listen to me. If anyone, anyone at all, ever says something like that to you again, you are to tell me immediately. If Hyto ever comes near you, I’ll kill him. If he touches you, I will flay him alive. And don’t you ever hide anything from me. If you see him, you tell me. If you hear from him, you tell me. Do you understand?” He punctuated his words with a low growl and I was afraid he was going to shift into dragon form right there.
“I hear you! Let go of my wrist, dude, you’re holding me too tight.”
He loosened his grip, but pulled me close. “Father threatened me—and you—before he left. And it does not pay to take dragon threats lightly. Camille, I’m serious. If you smell one whiff of that rethoule around, you tell me.”
“Yeah,” I said, burrowing into his embrace. I wasn’t sure of what a rethoule was, but whatever it meant, it wasn’t complimentary. “I promise.”
His lips met mine then, in a fierce kiss, his tongue seeking my own, his hands wandering over my body. “I want you, I want you now,” he said, his voice husky and low.
“You’ll have to share me,” I whispered back. “We found Trillian. And Smoky, so much has happened. You need to hear everything.”
“Not now. I need you, I want you. I want to feel your legs wrapped around my waist and to hear you cry my name. If you want the others with us, fine, but I’m first—I touch your core first this night. You understand?”
And he was so determined, so furious at his father and pent up from the conflict, that all I could do was nod.
But before we could head up to the bedroom, Delilah peeked into the room, an ashen look on her face.
“I hate to bother you, but you’d both better come out.” She glanced at Smoky’s hand, which was under my shirt, caressing my breast. His hair, which had lifted up my skirt and was tickling me between my thighs, suddenly dropped to his ankles again. A quixotic smile crossed her face. “I take it everything’s all right between the two of you, then?”
I nodded, pulling away from his embrace. “Everything’s fine. What’s wrong?”
“We have company and you both should be in on the conversation because, from what little has been said, it’s going to be a doozy. I called Menolly. The surveillance camera’s been set up and she and Chase are on their way back here now.” She stifled a snicker as she headed out the door. “Smoky, dude, you’d better take a moment to deflate your tent.”
“Thanks for the advice,” he called after her, chuckling. “It’s good to be home again,” he added softly.
I glanced at him. “Whoa mama, she was right.” The outline against the fly of his tight white jeans left nothing to the imagination as to just where his thoughts had been wandering. “Meet you in the kitchen in a few.” And, adjusting my shirt and skirt to make sure nothing was showing that shouldn’t be, I headed toward the door.
As I entered the kitchen, I saw Aeval sitting there, along with Titania. Morgaine was nowhere to be seen. Another familiar face was standing near the door. Feddrah-Dahns. And Mistletoe was perched on the counter, resting his ass on one of the napkin rings. Iris was talking to him softly.
Maggie was nowhere to be seen. We didn’t keep her out and about when the Triple Threat was around, or even two-thirds of the Triple Threat, nor when Queen Asteria paid a visit. Though none of us could put our fingers on why, we had agreed that it wasn’t a good idea. There was some sort of threat to our little girl when they came visiting, and so we kept her out of sight, either in Iris’s bedroom or Menolly’s lair.
“Feddrah-Dahns!” Overjoyed to see him again, I dashed over and gave him a quick hug around that thick neck of his. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“You’ll be even more surprised by what’s going on,” he said. There was no threat behind the words, yet they made me uneasy.
I slipped into a chair and fingered one of the thumbprint cookies Iris had set on the table, licking the jam out of the pastry to kill time. I had no idea what to say to the two Fae Queens. Smoky joined me, taking a chair on my left.
“So where are Trillian and Morio?” I glanced around.
“They’re on their way up from the studio.” Delilah offered me a glass of mulled cider. I accepted the steaming mug and gratefully sipped the spicy juice. “Roz and Vanzir are out getting dinner. They should be back soon. Roz called to say they’re on the way.”
